5 Halloween Things Kids Can Do to Better Understand your Childhood
Written by J'Nel Wright and Joani Taylor
This time of year has left me confused on more than one occasion. Take, for instance, the process of walking 50 feet past 25 cars and accumulating an insane amount of candy in 10 minutes. Perhaps I had to endure too many country roads to collect treats and fail to see the value in this new process. But it illustrates the need for today’s kids to experience Halloween as we knew it. Not all of us had picture-perfect experiences as youth, but a trip down memory lane may prove helpful in gaining perspective. With that in mind, here are 5 Halloween things kids need to do to better understand your childhood.
1. Select a pumpkin from a field.
This activity accomplishes a number of things. Namely—it’s fun! Trudging through rows and rows of orange bursts of color tangled amid muddy vines inevitably leads to the perfect gourd that is better than all the others. It doesn’t matter if it won’t stand upright—you are coming home with me!
Field pumpkins are always a nice reminder that our food doesn’t just magically appear on aisle 12, and fortunately we have local growers who have made it their career to grow all kinds of food for the community. Here are some to visit.
2. Designing a Halloween costume using only items found around the house.
Most homes offer a plethora of things to experiment with including sheets, glasses, shoes, hangers, old clothes, pillows, cardboard boxes, among other things. Yes, we love our Ironman and Harry Potter costumes, but why not throw out the challenge as see what your little youngsters can create? Here are some great ideas to get you started.
3. Grab the family and enjoy a hay ride, corn maze or other fall activity.
There are close to 10 different reasons you could use to talk yourself out of doing this activity—ignore them and just go. Grab your family and your wallet and go. A parent’s role in Halloween is passive as it is. Stop being the observer while your kids are having fun and do something together. If “traditional” is proving to be a hard sell to the family, how about a casual stroll at Gardner Village? Here are some fun, last-minute events to visit.
4. Decorate a cookie.
I didn’t say “frost” a Halloween cookie, I said “decorate.” I mean, really bring out that creativity with colors and decorative sugars and toppings and fun shapes. It’s fun. It’s delicious and it’s very Halloween.
5. Watch vintage Halloween videos.
Decorating cookies is the perfect time to bring out It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Spookley the Square Pumpkin and Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. Who knows? Maybe things will work out for Linus this year?
As much as Halloween as evolved over the years, there is always room for sharing your own memories of this “ghoulishly hilarious” time of year. Don’t be scared! Take the time to share an evening (or two) with your family talking about Halloween’s past while enjoying time together in the present. You’ll be glad you did.
Leave a Reply